Energy and Environmental Engineering 2(6): 129-136, 2014
DOI: 10.13189/ eee.2014.020602
http://www.hrpub.org
Employing Urban Information Systems for Water
Distribution Systems
Uslu A.1,*, Bakan G.2, Şişman A.3
1
Ondokuzmayis University, Department of Civil Engineering, 55139 Atakum, Samsun, Turkey
Ondokuzmayis University, Department of Environmental Engineering, 55139 Atakum, Samsun, Turkey
3
Ondokuzmayis University, Department of Surveying Engineering, 55139 Atakum, Samsun, Turkey
*Corresponding Author: [email protected]
2
Copyright © 2014 Horizon Research Publishing All rights reserved.
Abstract In parallel with the rapid increase in population, information systems have been described as a system which
there has been an unplanned growth observed in the rate of
urbanization. Needs are also rising with the growth of
urbanization. In fact, due to this increase, water, energy, and
communication requisites are also raising parallel to
urbanization. In this case, it has been aimed to find healthy
solution methods for infrastructure systems by using the
Urban Information System (UIS). Because of irregular
installments of infrastructure systems, inadequacy on data,
outdated infrastructure maps, accidental excavations and not
having an urban information system for infrastructure
systems, there have been losses of lives and properties. In
this study, advantages that are provided as a result of
employing urban information systems for water distribution
systems have been introduced. In order to collect, process,
evaluate, and analyze data belongs to a water distribution
system, ArcGIS 10.0 geographic information system (GIS)
software has been used on the model example. At the end of
the study, to make correct decisions for the improvement and
management of water supply infrastructure systems, benefits
that will be provided by establishing information systems
have been described.
Keywords Geographic Information System (GIS),
Infrastructure, Modeling, Urban Information System (UIS),
Water Supply
1. Introduction
In parallel with the rapidly increasing population in
today’s world, claim for quality and different services, desire
to live in peace and comfort, demand for diversified
knowledge, wish to reach modernization and the
contemporary civilization level, an obligation of having
knowledge and using that knowledge productively have
occurred at all service industries.
Collection and processing of data and turning them into a
useful state require availability of a certain system. The
was established to access the information easily and to use it
productively
(http://www.e-kutuphane.imo.org.tr/pdf/10023.pdf, 2014).
In this century, the importance of knowledge has been
revealed fully, and our century has become the information
age due to the rapid improvement of technology. The
development of the Geographical Information System (GIS)
since the 1960’s has contributed greatly to local governments.
Within this scope, many municipalities and authorities
bound to these municipalities have established their own
Geographical Information Systems (Agus, 2011).
Geographical Information System(GIS) consists of all the
media which functions to collect, store, manage, examine,
transfer, and monitor the data belonging to Earth for a
particular purpose (Burrough, 1998). GIS can be described
as an entire system which is made up systematically from
computer hardwares, softwares, personal and geographical
information for the collection of various resources, storing
them in computer environment, and processing, updating,
analyzing, managing and presenting them in a way that can
cater to the user the information about the location
(Maraş,1999).
Planning, design, analysis, operation and maintenance of
water and sewer systems for urban areas can benefit
significantly from GIS technology. Much of decision making
can also be automated through the use of GIS (McKinney et
al., 1992). Such a system automates the process of solving
regional water problems, and aids in selection of minimum
cost alternatives (Lamie and Wong, 1991). The capability to
accurately forecast water demands and to match existing and
future supplies with these demands plays a key role in water
supply management. Traditional methods for projecting
regional water demands ignore the unique characteristics
(such as family size, property value, lot size, and soil
properties, which vary from one geographical location to the
other) that affect demand (Bishop et al, 1991). Maintenance
of water supply systems is another important aspect of the
complete operation. A GIS for underground systems is
almost entirely dependent on existing pipe records of these
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Employing Urban Information Systems for Water Distribution Systems
facilities. Jacobs et al. (1993) presented a method that uses
graphic techniques to augment leak data to develop an
accurate pipe inventory. The use of such a system greatly
reduces the time and effort required to establish a GIS
database for water distribution networks.
Urban Information System (UIS) is a more specialized
subcategory of GIS. It is a computer based system that is
used for analyzing, processing, and mapping the events and
objects existing in the urban settlement. UIS is a subtype of
GIS, which enables governments to use their resources in the
best way, creates a continuous additional income, and
increases the life quality of citizens (Palancıoğlu, 1996).
During the last decade in Turkey, the importance of the
Urban Information System has been understood, and studies
in this field have gained intensity. UIS is one of the
locational information systems which are made up with the
purpose of rapid and healthy examination of the planning,
infrastructure, engineering, basic services and administrative
data which are needed to take optimum decision while
conducting urban activities (Yomralıoğlu, 2005).
Municipalities in Turkey are leading institutions charged
with providing services to the urban population. Their main
responsibilities are urban planning, infrastructure,
transportation, building permission, tax collection and
mapping (Geymen et. al., 2008). Most of the population lives
in urban areas. According to the statistics, the volume of the
data regarding urban areas increases by a factor of two every
year (Yomralıoğlu and Çete, 2002). Use of computerised
systems is essential for the municipalities to carry out
complex tasks and manage the huge amount of data
effectively. Many Turkish municipalities are therefore trying
to establish and use urban information systems (UISs) as an
efficient tool for collecting, storing, manipulating and
displaying spatial data (Yomralıoğlu, 2002; Çete, 2002).
One of the data sources of UIS is graphical data, in other
words, current maps. In almost all of the local governments,
a major part of this information is available. However, the
graphical data of drinking water, sewage systems,
wastewater, natural gas belonging to the infrastructure are
not available in the large majority of local governments, or
even if they are available they do not have the sensitivity to
be used in UIS. Thus, there should be an obligation of
gaining locational information related to the details in all
activities oriented to the infrastructure. Consequently, tender
specifications related to the infrastructure should be drawn
professionally and in a way that they will make up the
deficiencies
(http://web.itu.edu.tr/tahsin/tahsin/Yayn_MakaleTR_files/7
4_13.pdf, 2014).
Inspecting the adequacy of the infrastructure, revising
potential problems that might occur, and solving the existing
problems have to be done as quickly as possible, because the
infrastructure network performs the duty of transferring
water, communication, and energy needs of the city, and
shortage of any of these services for any reason can affect
the daily life and activities adversely. Therefore, UIS for
infrastructure systems becomes significant to come up with
fast solutions for these kinds of problems (Agus, 2001).
Infrastructure facilities are being constructed for the
removal of waste-water (sewage), and for drinking water,
natural gas, telephone, and electricity to reach homes.
Infrastructure facilities are serious needs for people.
Infrastructure maps and additional information are needed to
find the location of these facilities that are underground and
to interfere when necessary. In developed countries,
regulations are made to adapt to modern life, and so, healthy
cities are being formed. On the other hand, many of the
infrastructure facilities are very weak in Turkey due to
unplanned settlement. Consequently, there have been
frequent failures in infrastructure facilities, and there have
been loss of properties and also lives. Fixing these failures in
a short time is not possible, and the decision and supporting
periods have taken a long time. In order to eliminate the
problems faced during the repair and maintenance of
infrastructure facilities, governments, local authorities and
related organizations have important roles. Especially,
establishing the UIS for infrastructure systems should be
mandatory, and the collection of data in a pool and sharing
the data with other institutions and organizations should be
provided (Işitmezoğlu and Türe, 2006).
In the face of the growing population and needs, the
management of drinking water supply systems is very
difficult, especially for large residential units. Not being able
to predict precisely the situations that may occur in a real
system can lead to errors which are difficult to compensate
when the projected system is put into service. In fact, this
situation can cause unwanted and unnecessary time and
money loss. In order to eliminate these negative effects,
inspect the system's hydraulics and water quality in drinking
water distribution systems, to create steady-state and
extended time simulations, to produce scenarios, to do
developmental planning for the future, to determine the
measures to be taken in case of emergency, and to improve
existing systems, software packages have been used in recent
years to rapidly extract information prepared in this field.
Network models can be set up easily in different ways by
these software packages. Network elements can be directly
entered to models in GIS or CAD format interactively or by
the help of the data (Walski et al.,2003). GIS stores the
information at thematic layers that are linked together
geographically, combines the discrete data sources to
synthesize the new data and to determine the relation
between data. Therefore, for the management and optimal
use of existing drinking water networks, local government
bodies in settlements should set up GIS-based Drinking
Water Network Information Systems that will help to create
network models easily.
In this study, the usage of UIS for drinking water supply
systems has been probed and a sample application has been
practiced. Various queries and analysis were made on the
sample application and it was concluded that the system can
be applied easily to a small-scaled settlement.
Energy and Environmental Engineering 2(6): 129-136, 2014
131
Figure 1. Research Area for Water Supply Network Infrastructure Information System Application
2. Data and Methodology
Ondokuz Mayıs District in the city of Samsun, Turkey has
been designated as the research area, because it is close to the
central district of Samsun where there were no UISs or no
other researches done for modeling the current drinking
water distribution, or for the easy access of intended data
(Figure 1).
The region has a temperate climate because it is located in
the Black Sea coast. The average temperature is 15 ˚C.
Summers and winters are rainy. The average annual rainfall
is around 725 mm. As of 2013, the total population of the
district is 24,300. A large increase in the population of the
district during the summer months is observed
(http://www.19mayis.bel.tr, 2014).
2.1. Problems Encountered While Setting Up the System
In general, there are various problems in many district
municipalities such as insufficient staff, problems in
automation, not to control and perform fast, poor archiving,
to store and use of digital data on analogue format, not to
update the data, and lack of coordination. Besides all these
problems, lack of hardware and funding, lack of qualified
personnel, inability to make quick decisions are among the
other outstanding problems (Morova, 2006).
Almost all of the problems mentioned above are also valid
for Ondokuz Mayıs District Municipality. The problems
such as the unspecification of corner coordinates needed for
digitizing sections, and not totally applying the
infrastructural data of the real system exist in the study area
on the map. Also, Esenyer, Yeşilova, Mimar Sinan and
Engiz villages, which were previously connected to the
district municipality, have been included in the borders of the
municipality, and changed as neighborhoods. The network
systems belonging to these villages have been included in the
existing grid network system at a future date. Even though
most of the drawings (sections) of the water supply system in
the study area were found, there are no network construction
drawings of some areas. For this reason, information was
obtained from the director of Scientific Affairs and technical
infrastructure workers who are knowledgeable about
network construction. Furthermore, the valves that were
closed were turned on when the new settlements were
established and new pipes were added to these places. But
these changes weren’t recorded on as-built drawings of the
water supply system.
2.2. Urban Information System Operation Steps for
Water Distribution Systems
In this study, ArcMap 10.0 GIS software produced by the
ESRI Company was used. ArcMap 10.0 software is a
Geographic Information Systems’ software that provides
query for vector and raster-based graphical and
non-graphical data. ArcMap, because of its functions of
displaying, updating, querying, analyzing, and reporting
current graphical and verbal data, provides the user with the
high-quality cartographic presentations (Töreyen et al.,
2010).
The graphical data belonging to the Ondokuz Mayıs
District that was selected as the study area are as follows;
• Development plans
• Topographic maps
• Infrastructure maps (Water distribution system maps)
During the stage in which the data used in the study were
collected, development maps and topographic maps were
obtained from the Technical Infrastructure Directorate of the
Ondokuz Mayıs District in digital (NETCAD) format. In the
scope of the drinking water supply network maps and
attribute data belonging to these maps, attribute information
that we could take into consideration was provided from the
Technical Infrastructure Directorate of Ondokuz Mayıs
District in printed form.
Plans and drawings of infrastructure networks can be
transferred from analoque formats to digital media with the
help of the GIS technology. The processing steps of the
Infrastructure Information System for Drinking Water
Supply Network are given as follows:
1. Sections of analogue maps of the drinking water
system were scanned with the scanner and were
transformed into raster data format. In the study, the
network operation plan of the water network
construction comprised of 42 sections that are 1/1000
in scale and which are provided in analogue format by
the Ondokuz Mayıs Municipality was scanned by the
132
2.
3.
Employing Urban Information Systems for Water Distribution Systems
scanner and transformed to ArcMap software in TIFF
format. Since the corner coordinates of the scanned
sections belonging to the water network being
examined were not specified, these data were placed
on the coordinates of the district development plans
prepared in the CAD environment (georeferencing).
After the georeferencing process, the network
elements were converted into the point and line format
(digitization).
Network elements (pipes) situated on the network plan
were digitized using the ArcMap 10.0 software
(Figure 2).
By setting up the database, data of network elements
can be updated quickly and vigorously. In the study,
the Ondokuzmayis data set, that includes many layers
in the same projection system under the
ondokuzmayisdatabase.gdb file, was formed. These
layers are named according to the diameters (100, 125,
150, 200, 250 etc.) of nominal pipes which are exist in
the network. Since it was required that the pipe layers
to be lines, the Type option was set as the Line Feature
(Line Feature). Attribute information that would be
examined were added while layers were formed. The
verbal data in the Urban Information System of Water
Network database are length, diameter, type of
material used, fire flow, pipe start and end node,
neighborhood-street, fire hydrant, valve-no, plug-no.
Attribute information is transferred to the ArcMap 10
software by manually entering them with the help of
the data written on sections and obtained from people
who worked on the construction and operation of the
4.
network.
The queries are features that are developed to pick the
elements from the network that have the desired
qualities. For example, displaying a certain
diametered pipe whose valve is open in the network
on the screen can be provided with the help of inquiry.
2.3. Estimation of Node Elevations
Node elevation is also an important input parameter for a
hydraulic model. It is usually defined by the ground
elevation. Surveying provides the most accurate ground
surface elevations. Unfortunately, surveying is very costly
and time consuming and recommended for critical model
nodes such as the centerline of a pump or a model calibration
node (Walski, 2001).
Manual estimation of node elevations from contour maps
or as-built plans is also a cumbersome process. A GIS allows
automatic computation of node elevations from DEM data
using the following procedure:
A GIS layer (e.g., a Shapefile) for the nodes is created in
the model. DEM layer covering the water distribution
service area is obtained. The node and DEM layers are
georeferenced (georegistered) into the same map projection
system. The node layer is overlaid over the DEM layer to
assign DEM elevations to nodes. Interpolation is done in
between the DEM grid cells (pixels) to estimate the correct
elevation at each node. Then the node elevation data is
loaded into the model (Shamsi, 2005).
Figure 2. Ondokuz Mayıs District Digitized Water Supply System
Energy and Environmental Engineering 2(6): 129-136, 2014
133
Figure 3. Water Distribution System Pipe Start and End Nodes Draped over a DEM
Figure 3 shows an overlay of a water distribution system layer over a DEM layer for calculating node elevations.
Figure 4. Inquiry based on the feature (Query of a pipe whose valve is off, whose length is greater than 45m and passes by Gul Street, the pipe which was
found as a result of the query can be seen as green coloured)
3. Results & Discussion
Information on water distribution systems can be queried in the set database. In a water distribution plan, in case of a
problem occurring on a known location, the problem will be solved rapidly and economically by quickly accessing the
information of network elements in the area.
The obtained digital and attribute data of the study area are transferred to the Water Distribution System’s database, and
some sample queries are conducted in order to control the functioning of the system. The screen displays of the results found
as an outcome of the query are presented.
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Employing Urban Information Systems for Water Distribution Systems
Some of the conducted queries are as follows:
1) Queries depending on features (length, the street where pipe lies, the state of valves being open or closed, availability of
fire hydrant and etc.) (Figure 4 and Figure 5)
2) The query of the water network depending on the location (queries according to intersections where layers, which are
formed based on the pipe diameter, intersect)
3) Queries both on features and locations (Figure 6)
4) A 20m buffer analysis of the network line (Figure 7)
2B buffer analysis, which is one of the classical GIS processes, is a spatial analysis based on the examination of the
distance of any geographical detail to its surrounding details (Yomralıoğlu, 2005). As a result of the buffer analysis, the area
which is in the 20m radius of 300 mm diametered pipes is investigated in this study.
Figure 5. Inquiry depending on the feature (Query of a pipe which has fire hydrant and whose valve is open and passes by Mutlu Street, the pipe which was
found as a result of the query can be seen as green colored.)
Figure 6. Inquiry depending on both feature and location.( Query of 100mm diametered pipes which intersect with 250mm diameter pipes whose length is
greater than 100m- the pipes which were found as a result of the query can be seen as green colored.)
Energy and Environmental Engineering 2(6): 129-136, 2014
135
Figure 7. Buffer Analysis (20m)
4. Conclusion
Today, the cost of the services which has to be offered
local and national by the public has been increasing with
parallel to the growing population. Also another issue is the
sustainability of these services.
In order to ensure qualified and uninterrupted services to
public and satisfaction of service receivers, taking advantage
of the Information Systems is inevitable.
Urban Information Systems are needed to maintain the
services of urban technical infrastructure elements (drinking
- waste water, energy, communications, transportation, etc..)
which is an important part of urban life.
All over the world in recent years, to identify damaged
infrastructure systems due to frequently encountered natural
disasters originated by meteorological events such as floods,
storms, landslides and to restore them for increasing their
performance, urban information systems for infrastructure
systems will be important. In addition to this, the quality of
data used for urban information system for infrastructure
systems (accurancy of geographic and attribute data) will
directly affect the queries and analysis which will be held in
information system.
To determine where the problem is in a water network, to
find a solution as soon as possible and while producing this
solution to avoid damaging to the other networks (sewage,
etc..) in the complex cities will be possible by the help of
urban information systems for water distribution systems.
One of the infrastructure facilities in which the UIS used is
the drinking water distribution system. When the network
elements cannot function due to any problem, water shortage
must be prevented in the area of supply. In order not to
spend any extra cost, not to waste labor, and for the network
not to turn into a complicated structure unnecessarily, with
the help of the UIS and network model, making the right
decisions can be ensured.
In this study, a database and infrastructure information
system have been built by using graphical and attribute data
belonging to the Ondokuz Mayıs District’s Municipality. By
employing the ArcGIS 10.0 CBS software which is produced
by the ESRI Company, use of the system has been practiced
on a personal computer. By this applied study, the
advantages, which can be provided when collecting,
processing, evaluating and analyzing the data combined with
computer technology have been tried to be displayed in a
sample application ground. Thus, the data related to the
drinking water network can be accessed immediately. In
addition to being able to do various queries and analysis on
the system for further planning, a great convenience will be
provided in the maintenance and repair works.
Under the lights of all these information, it has been
concluded that the Infrastructure Information System must
be set in solving the drinking water supply network’s
problems rapidly and vigorously.
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